This time around, I don't think I want to focus on just a single subject matter, as I have been digging through many of my various things the past few days, and had found some interesting things. One of the first things that I came across was an interesting cylinder by a quartette that I have heard of before, here they are from the October, 1898 issue of The Phonoscope:
Hmm, I recognize two faces here...maybe three...
The two on the left I come across before.
Here is the cylinder I was talking about:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/6000/6705/cusb-cyl6705d.mp3
Immediately after listening to the cylinder, I dug through my record books for identification of the personnel for this "Excelsior Quartette". I didn't find them anywhere. So the next thing that I turned to was The Phonoscope , I looked around through the editions and found them. I had seen this picture before(I mean the one above)as I had been looking for those anecdotes about Spencer and Hylands and such, but I had never really found a reason to use it for anything, until I realized who the little man in the middle is.
I knew that the man in the far left is William F. Hooley, but I looked through the advertisements for the "Excelsior Phonograph Company" for identification of personnel on their staff, hoping for more clues.
Here is what I used for this:
I wasn't sure at first, but I knew him when I saw him, that man second from the left is none other than:
Roger Harding!
That's right! I am completely convinced that's Harding. Also because I heard his piping tenor voice in the quartette anyhow. The eyes are what got me thinking, because I knew I had seen them paired with them whiskers. The glasses! Those weren't in the other picture of him! I like him even more like that! I was talking about George Graham being picturesque last week or so, but Harding takes the prize on that!
The thing that frustrates me about this is that I cannot identify the two on the right of the picture, but I know that it's one of the artists mentioned in their advertisements. I now think that the man on the right in the back is the man that I spoke of yesterday, S. H. Dudley, as he is mentioned in EVERY advertisement of the Exelsior record company.
Now this next thing I found just this evening, so I must share it. It is a typical cylinder by the Columbia orchestra from 1899, as it's on a CD with all 1899 cylinders, so in sharing this with you I had to find the exact point of where the cylinder begins, but if you want to hear some of the other interesting cylinders here, you may do so, it's really an interesting mix!
So here you go, skip to 57:47 for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxErKt40ZQ4
Oh! How it's a mess alright! Hylands is lagging behind the rest of the band painfully! OOH! I just cannot get over how much of a disaster the piano is on this one. The tempo for the Rag(Cakewalk) is perfect in the band's playing, but the problem is that Hylands' tempo is JUST behind the band to where it's absolutely jarring upon listening. But I know it's Hylands only because he's doing much of the same things that can be heard on other records where he accompanies the Columbia orchestra. Such as this great rarity of Rag-Time from only two years later:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpU2pWTZiVg
(listen to the Gottschalk-like rhythm at 4:17 to 4:24!)
He replays the last strain of the record more clearly with a fresh needle. That's why the video is so long. Once he gets the end clearer, really listen to the Ragged and slightly Tango-like piano accompaniment! That's Hylands alright. I just recently got to play this record again at one of my kind record collector friend's house. How it's a loud one! I forget how loud those Columbia discs were for their time, I had to stand three feet away from the edge of the horn after I got the record playing at the right speed(as I am extremely particular about the record speeds). Those Columbia's were made to be loud, and how they damn right were. Their cylinders and discs alike. I played a Victor monarch of Banta and the Metropolitan orchestra from the same year right after and I could barely hear it! I had to stick my head into the wooden horn to hear anything. I'm not saying that Victor's weren't good records, I played Silas Leachman's "I'm Livin' Easy"(all of Leachman's tunes were on Victors) a little while later and I had to stand a foot and a half away from the horn to get the best sound out of it.
Well, back to the brown wax of "Smokey Mokes", I listened to that cylinder the first time this evening and was immediately shocked by the piano's prevalence and how disorganized the piano is compared to the reasonably clean and slick band. I wonder if Hylands counted them off wrong, or they didn't even count it off. Hylands was too drunk to say, "one, two---one two!" like Banta always did. He must have hollered before they began the take:
"Ah'right boys! Le's start-er up!"
And that was it probably. Because clearly, the counting off business didn't work on this take, and it's clear that this is what the Columbia orchestra sounded like when Hylands had already been there all day and had already been drugged and had enough to drink. It's still a great piece of early recorded Rag-Time.
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/6000/6705/cusb-cyl6705d.mp3
Immediately after listening to the cylinder, I dug through my record books for identification of the personnel for this "Excelsior Quartette". I didn't find them anywhere. So the next thing that I turned to was The Phonoscope , I looked around through the editions and found them. I had seen this picture before(I mean the one above)as I had been looking for those anecdotes about Spencer and Hylands and such, but I had never really found a reason to use it for anything, until I realized who the little man in the middle is.
I knew that the man in the far left is William F. Hooley, but I looked through the advertisements for the "Excelsior Phonograph Company" for identification of personnel on their staff, hoping for more clues.
Here is what I used for this:
The thing that frustrates me about this is that I cannot identify the two on the right of the picture, but I know that it's one of the artists mentioned in their advertisements. I now think that the man on the right in the back is the man that I spoke of yesterday, S. H. Dudley, as he is mentioned in EVERY advertisement of the Exelsior record company.
Now this next thing I found just this evening, so I must share it. It is a typical cylinder by the Columbia orchestra from 1899, as it's on a CD with all 1899 cylinders, so in sharing this with you I had to find the exact point of where the cylinder begins, but if you want to hear some of the other interesting cylinders here, you may do so, it's really an interesting mix!
So here you go, skip to 57:47 for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxErKt40ZQ4
Oh! How it's a mess alright! Hylands is lagging behind the rest of the band painfully! OOH! I just cannot get over how much of a disaster the piano is on this one. The tempo for the Rag(Cakewalk) is perfect in the band's playing, but the problem is that Hylands' tempo is JUST behind the band to where it's absolutely jarring upon listening. But I know it's Hylands only because he's doing much of the same things that can be heard on other records where he accompanies the Columbia orchestra. Such as this great rarity of Rag-Time from only two years later:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpU2pWTZiVg
(listen to the Gottschalk-like rhythm at 4:17 to 4:24!)
He replays the last strain of the record more clearly with a fresh needle. That's why the video is so long. Once he gets the end clearer, really listen to the Ragged and slightly Tango-like piano accompaniment! That's Hylands alright. I just recently got to play this record again at one of my kind record collector friend's house. How it's a loud one! I forget how loud those Columbia discs were for their time, I had to stand three feet away from the edge of the horn after I got the record playing at the right speed(as I am extremely particular about the record speeds). Those Columbia's were made to be loud, and how they damn right were. Their cylinders and discs alike. I played a Victor monarch of Banta and the Metropolitan orchestra from the same year right after and I could barely hear it! I had to stick my head into the wooden horn to hear anything. I'm not saying that Victor's weren't good records, I played Silas Leachman's "I'm Livin' Easy"(all of Leachman's tunes were on Victors) a little while later and I had to stand a foot and a half away from the horn to get the best sound out of it.
Well, back to the brown wax of "Smokey Mokes", I listened to that cylinder the first time this evening and was immediately shocked by the piano's prevalence and how disorganized the piano is compared to the reasonably clean and slick band. I wonder if Hylands counted them off wrong, or they didn't even count it off. Hylands was too drunk to say, "one, two---one two!" like Banta always did. He must have hollered before they began the take:
"Ah'right boys! Le's start-er up!"
And that was it probably. Because clearly, the counting off business didn't work on this take, and it's clear that this is what the Columbia orchestra sounded like when Hylands had already been there all day and had already been drugged and had enough to drink. It's still a great piece of early recorded Rag-Time.
I hope you enjoyed this!
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